Matan Porat
Biography Matan Porat
Matan Porat’s
artistic activity encompasses a wide spectrum of work as a pianist and composer.
His varied concert programme includes J.S. Bach’s Six Partitas, ten Mozart concerti as well as Ives' monumental second sonata, "Concord." His debut CD, “Variations on a theme by Scarlatti” - a 65-minute program of pieces from Couperin to Boulez which relate to Scarlatti’s Sonata K. 32 - was recorded last year for the Mirare label.
Porat has performed at such venues as Carnegie Hall in New York, Auditorium du Louvre in Paris, the Barbican and Wigmore hall in London, and the Alte Oper in Frankfurt. He has appeared as a soloist with orchestras including the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Münchener Kammerorchester, Hong Kong Sinfonietta, Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra, Israel Symphony Orchestra and Israel Chamber Orchestra.
An avid chamber musician, Matan Porat has participated in many distinguished festivals including the Marlboro, Ravinia, Verbier, Salzburg and Delft Festivals. Other chamber appearances include performances with the Ysaÿe, Modigliani and Jerusalem Quartets, Renaud and Gautier Capuçon, Sharon Kam, Kim Kashkashian, Emmanuel Pahud, Dorothea Röschmann, Alisa Weilerstein and members of the Guarneri Quartet. Porat has toured with Peter Brook’s production of Mozart’s Magic Flute, in a experimental version for piano solo and seven singers.
Matan Porat studied with Emanuel Krasovsky, Maria João Pires and Murray Perahia. He obtained his Master’s degree from the Juilliard School. Winner of the 2009 Prime Minister Award for composers, Porat studied composition with Ruben Seroussi and George Benjamin.
Porat’s works have been commissioned by Maria João Pires, Kim Kashkashian, Elena Bashkirova and the Jerusalem International Chamber Music Festival, as well as the Academy of the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin with premieres at the Montpellier, Schleswig-Holstein and Menuhin Gstaad Festivals. David Orlowsky’s CD, featuring Porat’s “Lux Aeterna,” won the ECHO award in 2011; Porat’s piece „Whaam!“, recorded by David Greilsammer for Sony, was released in 2012. Among his performed pieces are an opera, “Animal Farm”; a Requiem; a mandolin concerto; and a musical theatre trilogy for an actor and ensemble based on stories by Kafka, Orwell and Thomas Mann.
Highlights of Matan Porat's 2013/14 season include recital debuts at the Philharmonie in Berlin and Salle Gaveau in Paris, as well as appearances at the Rheingau Musikfestival, Musiktage Hitzacker and La Folle Journée in France and Japan. Premieres of his works will be given by such artists as Nicolas Altstaedt, Linus Roth, José Gallardo and the Academy of the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin.
